This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

[17:00]

[16:59]

Up until now, Kain had always been satisfied with his gift—after all, Pangea truly is an incredible one.

However, right now as he watched the timer continue to tick down, more than anything, he wished that he had the gift to stop time.

Nearby, the others were doing their best. A pro of so many Obelisk’s targeting Kain was that the pressure on them eased slightly.

Bridge and Leonara had nearly reached the spinning, blade-shedding Obelisk. Feather Sweater supported them. Her contract, that looked like a large bird made of metal, was launching its feathers as projectiles to intercept the blades launched by the Obelisk.

The twins, Addison and Aiden, were locked in a battle with the Obelisk that would continuously give birth to more and more glass-like creatures. Unfortunately, despite their appearances, these creatures were nowhere near as fragile as glass.

The team of Tattoo Girl, Big Axe Guy, and Michael had set their sights on the Obelisk that emitted a dangerous gravitational pull.

Every few seconds, it would suck inward, push outward, send them crashing downwards, or even floating upwards beyond their control. Although none of them seemed in danger of getting extremely injured, it was probably the most difficult one to get close to among all of the obelisks.

But with time, Kain could see they were adapting to the rhythm of the gravitational changes. Unfortunately, their speed of adaptation was quite slow, and they were on a time limit.

As for Kain—

Kain was feeling like he needed a few extra brains at the moment. One to keep track of the threat below, one to keep track of the threat above, one to keep track of the annoying threat flying around him, trying to ram into him like a charging bull, and one to keep track of and assist his allies.

He directed Queen’s Vespid guards to focus mainly on supporting Bridge’s and the twins’ groups, sending squads to intercept hostile projectiles or block attacks aimed at his teammates. It was not an action born from favouritism, but because Michael’s group really didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger, unlike the other two groups.

When one of the glass-creatures cornered Addison, a cluster of Vespid guards swarmed it and harassed and knocked it back long enough for Aiden’s contract to blast it apart with a strong burst of wind.

Meanwhile, Vauleth assisted where he could while dodging the attacks aimed at him from all directions: a well-timed dragon’s breath aimed at the blade-shedding Obelisk, actually had the effect of melting a few of the blades onto its surface before they could be launched. As a result, temporarily, many of the openings it launched blades from became sealed shut. Bridge’s group had a few seconds’ reprieve.

Seeing the opportunity created by Kain, Leonara broke formation, her gift flaring visibly as light seemed to emit from her pores for a moment as she accelerated. She touched down lightly on the platform that housed the Obelisk spinning around and emitting blades, her hand stretching out to a bladeless spot clearly meant for contact—

The Obelisk reacted violently.

A flurry of blades erupted outward in every direction, breaking through the melted shut openings by force. Leonara cried out, arms lifting instinctively. But Kain was already prepared. Aegis hadn’t been able to play the biggest role while they were in the air, but once Leonara touched down on the platform, Aegis manipulated the ground of the stone platforms from afar—reshaping it into a shield covering her. Bridge and Feather Sweater, who dove forward, preparing to take the hits meant for her, dropped back in relief after seeing the situation resolved by Kain.

Bzzzt—

She touched it.

Leonara’s body tensed the moment her fingertips brushed the Obelisk’s surface. Her pupils shrank slightly, her breathing growing shallow. Around her, the spiritual energy became chaotic—gusts of unstable power vibrating outward. For those nearby, it looked almost like a heat wave distorting the air.

Inside, a brutal tug-of-war was happening unseen to the others. The Obelisk tested her will, competing against her in a pure match only using spiritual power, no gifts or contracts available to tip the scales in her favour. Leonara gritted her teeth, standing her ground, sweat beading along her brow.

After what felt like an eternity, but based on the timer Kain knew was only around 20 seconds, bright light flared from Leonara’s hand, and a second later, a deep, chiming sound rang out.

[Obelisks Claimed: 1/9. 5 more needed to pass]

A ripple of energy swept through the relic. Two of the Obelisks, specifically those connected to this one by those strange glowing threads, weakened after the loss of connection to the bladed one.

Kain and the others were finally able to get a hint as to the purpose of those threads that they’d been ignoring up until now, thinking that maybe they were supposed to tightrope across them from one platform to another. Coincidentally, one of the Obelisks this bladed one was connected to, was the one emitting a gravitational pull that was taken on by Michael’s team.

They immediately went from the team with the worst progress in approaching the Obelisk, to Tattoo Girl managing to place her hand on its surface.

In less than a minute after taking down the first Obelisk, they may get their second!

Kain exhaled in relief—then immediately tensed again.

Tattoo Girl, who was taking on whatever spiritual power challenge was launched by the Obelisk, cried out in pain before fading out existence as her body was forcefully ejected by the relic.

She had failed.

But fortunately, the instructions of this task seemed to suggest failure would just result in them being ejected from the relic. She shouldn’t have any long-term or permanent side-effect from the failure, right?

Michael cursed after seeing his teammate disappear, lunging forward with gritted teeth to try and pick up where Tattoo Girl left off. Big Axe Guy—whose real name Kain still hadn’t caught—covered him by hurling his heavy weapon at one of the two flying Obelisks, attempting to knock into where they stood on the platform to prevent the second attempt. Naturally, the axe couldn’t do much besides deflecting the Obelisk, but that was enough.

Michael’s palm slammed onto the Obelisk’s surface.

Another surge of unstable energy radiated outward. From the way Michael’s muscles locked and his body shook, it was clear he was struggling.

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